What the Housing Crisis Could Mean to San Diego

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Owning a home has always been a part of the American dream. Not all Americans maybe but many.

But owning a home in San Diego has always been a more expensive dream and now it’s even more expensive.

In a special report, the San Diego Union Tribune asks: Can we build our way out of the housing crisis?

The median price of a home is well over a half million dollars and the average cost of renting is up to new highs.

In the report, a real estate economist at USD says that unless things change, the percentage of people in SD County who own homes, now at 53 percent, will fall to 50 percent. And who knows, maybe even lower.

He says the number of people who move to San Diego for a job is about equal now to the number of people moving away.

And the USD economist says it’s a supply problem, just not enough new homes are being built, especially he says middle or lower income priced homes that more people can afford.

The Union Tribune report quotes builders who say higher priced homes make more money for them. And at the same time, government regulations in California make it more costly to build homes.

We’re all aware of what we call the sunshine tax, the additional cost of housing in San Diego, because it’s in California. But this report suggests that if we can’t build our way out of the housing crisis, then San Diego may not be the same San Diego.